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"No. It's not. Good try though."
He lifted a brow. "So what do you say? Are you going to actually let me dance with you, or will I be relegated to your last dance partner’s status of dancing near you while trying not to look creepy as I try to inch closer and possibly rub up against you?"
I threw my head back and laughed. "Oh my God, you saw that?"
"It was hard to watch. That man did not know how to treat a woman. I'm going to save myself the scarring pain of it all and just simply ask you if you're going to let me dance with you."
I assessed him. My belly was doing that flip-flop thing, but my belly was a liar. How many times had I had this feeling? That pleasant, amazing feeling of that first attraction when you feel all tingly, and your skin hums, and your lady parts warm, and you are thinking all systems are a go. Only to be insanely disappointed later when go time becomes show time and you are like, 'Oh God, please, God, no.' Still though, I liked the buzz. I liked the feeling of it. The way his lopsided smile made my skin tingle.
I liked the way he was looking at me because I wasn't normally the woman men looked at like that.
Under normal circumstances, I was surrounded by men twenty-four seven. And if even one of them looked at me like that, my brother would shut that shit down quick and send him on a mission he would never return from. But this bloke, he was someone I did not know. He knew nothing about me and just wanted to dance. And dance, I could do. Because dancing was the promise. Even if the execution was always weak, I loved the promise. The promise of fun and excitement and orgasms and laughter. I liked the promise above all. "Can you even dance?"
He grinned. "Well, you know, there's only one way to find out. And hey, I'll even do you a solid. I won't actually touch you. You can touch me anywhere you want though."
I laughed, albeit uneasily. How had he already seen all of that? "What do you mean?"
"You seem like the kind of girl who deserves for me to earn the right to touch you. So why don't we dance for a bit? You can touch me all you want."
His observance was doing things to my equilibrium and that weren't fair because he looked like the kind of person who would be amazing for something fun and easy and uncomplicated.
But my life would always be complicated.
Looking up at his easy smile, I felt myself nodding. I didn't even know why. I knew that this would only lead to disappointment, but it was my birthday and I wanted twenty-two to feel normal. I wanted twenty-two to feel like I could pretend for a moment that I was like everyone else. I could lean into the promise even if I wasn't going to deliver on it.
I glanced up at him. "All right. Just why do you think I'm going to touch you?"
His tongue peeked out to moisten his lower lip, and I couldn’t help but stare because... Jesus.He stepped toward me. Close, but not too close. I had room to maneuver. Room to run.
True to his word, he did not put his hands on me. But his eyes never left mine. And as I placed my hands on the firm, packed muscle of his chest I could have sworn I heard the intake of his breath. Sharp. Subtle.
And then we moved together.
When he spoke, his breath tickled my neck. “I knew you would be mine.”
